Campaign to restore WW1 unmarked graves to be launched

Sarah Marshall

Don Valley MP Caroline Flint, and Father Stephen Edmonds are set to join local historian Dave Glover and local residents to restore the graves of four veterans who gave their lives in World War I.

The graves of Private G Bucktrout (Military Medal), Private C McLaughlin, Private A Walker, and Able Seaman CH Pye have been left unmarked for over 30 years in a small overgrown gravrd near St Peters Church Old Edlington.

In this anniversary year, the MP and local campaigners have established that the Church of England’s Sheffield Diocese still owns the small cemetery annexe where the graves are located, many years after the church closed in the 1970s. The headstones were removed in 1981.

Caroline said: “Now we know who owns the land, we are very keen, in this centenary year to restore these graves and have them properly marked in honour of these brave men once again.”